Consumer

Dr. Cindy Cupp, publisher of Dr. Cupp Readers®, has asked me to forward this compilation of multiple independent evaluations of her materials. The evaluations were accomplished using the Consumer’s Guide to Evaluating A Core Reading Program. National evaluators use the Consumer’s Guide as a framework for judging the strength of each Reading First application. This Consumer’s Guide provides evaluations for each of the essential elements of beginning reading instruction (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension as defined by the National Reading Panel) plus an overall design feature evaluation.

The independent reviewers included Lisa Cox, Laura Harrell, Kathy Holland, Haley Remillard and Beth Usry. Their individual biographies and contact information are attached.

Consumer’s Guide Cumulative Summary Page Combining Results of All Reviewers - K

Consumer’s Guide Cumulative Summary of Design Features Combining Results of All Reviewers – K

Consumer’s Guide Cumulative Summary Page Combining Results fro All Reviewers – 1^st grade

Consumer’s Guide Cumulative Summary of Design Features for All Reviewers – 1^st grade

Consumer’s Guide Individual Summary Pages showing each reviewers’ evaluation (for K and first grade as applicable)

Consumer’s Guide Individual Summary of Design Features for each reviewer (for K and first grade as applicable)

^*This independent research summary is currently being considered for publication by the GA Journal of Reading

Lisa Cox is a first grade EIP reading teacher at Brooklet Elementary School in Brooklet, Georgia. She is the current Brooklet Elementary School 2003 Teacher of the Year and was nominated as Bulloch County’s 2004 Teacher of the Year. She was one of eleven educators who served on the GA Language Arts Adoption Committee and has traveled to England as part of GA Southern University’s International Learning Committee.

Laura Harrell has taught elementary school (K-3) for the last fifteen years. She also worked in the GA Department of Education’s Reading Department/School Improvement area for four years. Ms. Harrell holds a Specialist Degree in Administration.

Contact Info: Cartersville Primary School, Cartersville City Schools, Bartow County

Kathy Holland has a Bachelor’s degree in Mental Retardation, a Master’s degree in Learning Disabilities and a Specialist degree in Early Childhood. During her 24 years of teaching she has taught special education-resource and self-contained first, second, fourth and fifth grades, REP and EIP (since that program began in GA) and also first grade early intervention in which she provided one-on-one instruction for 30 minutes each day to first graders needing additional support in reading.

Haley Remillard is currently employed with Homewood City Schools in Alabama. She teaches kindergarten at Edgewood Elementary in Birmingham and has used Dr. Cupp Readers^® in her classroom for the past two and one half years. In 2002, she was identified as the first year teacher with the highest DIBELS scores in the system and she attributes those scores to the impact of Dr. Cupp Readers^TM as her chosen curriculum.

Beth Usry is a first grade teacher with 29 years of experience with the Columbia County School System. Ms. Usry received her BS Ed in Early Childhood Education, her Masters in Education from Georgia Southern University, and is certified as a TSS (Teacher Support Specialist).

Contact Info: SCHOOL – North Harlem Elementary, Harlem, GA - busry@ccboe.net -

The program meets the following criteria for a comprehensive program and will be evaluated using the Consumer’s Guide.

Includes comprehensive materials for K-1

This program also meets criteria for a supplemental or intervention program.
Program: ____Dr. Cupp Readers^®_ Grade Level: Kindergarten

Overall Program Summary

Strengths: Fluency is an unexpected yet powerful portion of Dr. Cupp Readers^®. Because of the cumulative sight vocabulary, students become fluent readers in Kindergarten. Fluency in turn leads to a higher comprehension level and sets habits and patterns for fluency early. There is a strong emphasis on fluency components in all areas of language arts: reading, speaking, writing and listening.

Auditory cues and movement are linked to consonant and vowel sounds in a very unique and effective way. The Hop’n Pop game is highly motivating and a most unique program for introducing and reinforcing sight words. It provides an enormous amount of repetition without becoming monotonous. The AlphaMotion® cards have allowed students to develop phonemic awareness and phonological awareness earlier in the year than students taught with other programs. Skills are presented in a highly systematic way. Extensive practice and review are an integral part of this program as are high interest activities. High utility letter sounds are introduced early. The parent component gives questions for the parent to discuss at home. Familiar stories and fairy tales are incorporated into the Dr. Cupp stories.

Weaknesses: - The Read Aloud List is only provided as a reference list and is not provided in the program. Therefore a teacher is limited to what materials are provided at her school.

The words “it” and “is”, “the” and “this” are introduced in the same story. Being introduced in the same story has repeatedly made these words hard for EIP students to grasp. These are the only pairs my EIP students have consistently struggled with. Being that these are only 4 words out of 115 in the Kindergarten level, I really think the strength of the program outweighs this concern.

Students are highly motivated while using this program. Teachers find a comprehensive, well-rounded approach to teaching language arts in the early grades. This program also has a “painless” form of sight word instruction and provides for every level of learner with a highly individualized approach. The game format is appealing to even the slowest learner and students. set the pace. Students are able to integrate new vocabulary and learn to ask the question: “Does this make sense?” Students are reading fluently earlier than with other programs.

Design Features

Design Features
Average Rating	Criterion
Average Rating	Criterion
2	1. Coordinates and integrates phonemic awareness and phonics instruction and student materials.
2	2. Provides ample practice on high-priority skills.
2	3. Provides explicit and systematic instruction.
2	4. Includes systematic and cumulative review of high priority skills.
1.75	5. Demonstrates and builds relationships between fundamental skills leading to higher order skills.
9.75/10 =	98%

Strengths: Ten Minute Phonics™, the phonics component, meets all modalities for individual students. Ample opportunities for extensive practice and repetition needed by many students are given and the instruction is explicit and systematic. Additionally the opportunities for review and assessment are systematic and cumulative. The materials and teacher’s manual are teacher-friendly. The program offers success to emergent readers as well as independent readers. It is highly individualized and highly motivating. The characters are memorable. The AlphaMotion® Cards combine the introduction and practice of associating sound and movement in a unique, effective way. Comprehension skills are taught very early in this program and the materials are presented in such a way that emergent readers can successfully comprehend from the start. Comprehension questions are provided with each story. Students are able to answer multiple choice questions by marking in the “bubbles” which helps them prepare for standardized testing without having to introduce specific practice for that (helps with the yearly GA CRCT test).

Weaknesses: The manual does not give specific questions to ask (although this could also be considered a strength for teachers to be creative).

The teacher’s guide, Part I, doesn’t offer specific strategies for teaching story structure.

Retelling and open-ended questions that require analytical thinking and reasoning could be stronger.

Implications: Students score higher on DIBELS and other assessments. This program is a must for any kindergarten teacher who wants to make reading instruction fun while offering success for ALL participants. It is a complete program. Teachers who use this program will no longer need to supplement their reading curriculum.
Program: _Dr. Cupp Readers^®_____ Grade Level: First Grade

Overall Program Summary

Strengths: Well-balanced program with extensive practice of vocabulary and phonics skills available. This allows each student to achieve rapid success. All students can be successful and all students can read.

Auditory cues and movement are linked to consonant and vowel sounds. Readiness activities are appropriate and easily built upon. Beginning phonics instruction – cvc words – culminates with multi-syllable complex words. Scripted lessons that teach the process of decoding words are helpful. A tremendous amount of repetition is provided.

Text is provided for students even in Story 1. Time is allocated daily to blending, segmenting and manipulating tasks; the program works with increasingly longer words.

Manual space is not wasted on listing the obvious questions in regards to story structure but instead emphasis is placed on higher order thinking questions. Critical comprehension strategies are one of the strengths.

Implications: Highly motivating. Systematic and explicit phonics instruction. Teacher friendly. Students will successfully read new text. Well-rounded approach to fluency instruction. The stories cause children to THINK.

Design Features

Design Features
Average Rating	Criterion
Average Rating	Criterion
2	1. Aligns and coordinates the words used in phonics/word recognition activities with those used in fluency building.
2	2. Provides ample practice on high-priority skills.
2	3. Provides explicit and systematic instruction.
2	4. Includes systematic and cumulative review of high priority skills.
2	5. Demonstrates and builds relationships between fundamental skills leading to higher order skills.
10/10 =	100%

Strengths: Builds fluency from the first story. Provides ample, fun practice and a systematic and explicit approach to review and instruction, especially in the area of phonics. Also provides ample repetition that many students need to be successful. Emergent readers as well as independent readers are motivated, and the instruction is individualized. The characters are unique and memorable which helps students with comprehension.

The AlphaMotion® cards combine letter/sound recognition with movement for easy memory retrieval. This is an excellent program for teaching students at all levels of learning. All decodable text contains the phonics elements that students have been taught. Sight words are cumulative and are only included in the text after they have been taught.

This program does a wonderful job of integrating vocabulary words into sentences. The earlier books introduce 4 new words per booklet and increase up to 7. Unique and extremely motivating games encourage sight word practice. The teacher’s manual includes a very impressive list of Read Aloud stories from multiple genres, coded to go with each story.

Part II is very strong in higher order thinking questioning. The stories in Part I and II include familiar vocabulary. The stories are structured and explicit and offer comparisons to other stories.

Weaknesses: - Narrative and expository text is only addressed in the Read Aloud portion.

Implications: Skills carry over to reading other texts. After serving on the GA Language Arts Textbook Adoption Committee, I have seen many reading programs. This program of reading instruction is one of the finest I have ever evaluated. Perhaps its greatest value is that reading teachers using it no longer need to supplement reading instruction. Dr. Cupp Readers® is a complete program. Students continue to want to participate in the games and activities.

Overall Program Summary

Design Features

Design Features
Rating	Criterion
Rating	Criterion
2	1. Coordinates and integrates phonemic awareness and phonics instruction and student materials.
2	2. Provides ample practice on high-priority skills.
2	3. Provides explicit and systematic instruction.
2	4. Includes systematic and cumulative review of high priority skills.
2	5. Demonstrates and builds relationships between fundamental skills leading to higher order skills.
10/10 =	100%

Strengths: This program provides ample opportunity for extensive repetition that many learners require and it is extremely teacher-friendly. Phonics is taught systematically and explicitly. Reviews are also systematic and cumulative. This program offers success to emergent readers as well as independent readers and is highly individualized to fit each student’s needs and motivate each child to succeed. The characters in Dr. Cupp’s stories are memorable and unique and character education guidelines from GA’s state requirements are woven into the stories. The AlphaMotion® cards combine sound and movement for easy retrieval and retention of the letters/sounds.

Doesn’t provide strategies for teaching story structure in the teacher’s guide.

Implications: This program is a must for any Kindergarten teacher who wants to make reading instruction fun while offering success for every student. It is a complete program. Teachers who use this program will no longer need to supplement their reading program.

Overall Program Summary

Design Features

Design Features
Rating	Criterion
Rating	Criterion
2	1. Coordinates and integrates phonemic awareness and phonics instruction and student materials.
2	2. Provides ample practice on high-priority skills.
2	3. Provides explicit and systematic instruction.
2	4. Includes systematic and cumulative review of high priority skills.
1	5. Demonstrates and builds relationships between fundamental skills leading to higher order skills.
9/10 =	90%

Strengths: The Readiness Manual was an important addition to this overall program as it provides many strategies to use in developing phonemic awareness. With the first story and each subsequent one, students are encouraged to read, comprehend and practice fluency immediately. All instruction is explicit and systematic. The cumulative approach used in Dr. Cupp Readers® allows students to build on earlier skills as they move into more complex and varied text.

	High Priority Items	Discretionary Items
Phonemic Awareness	98%	97%
Phonics	99%	98%
Fluency	Not requested in detail of K	Evaluation forms
Vocabulary	96%	92%
Comprehension	78%	73%
Totals	93%	85%

	High Priority Items	Discretionary Items
Phonemic Awareness	100%	100%
Phonics	100%	100%
Fluency	98%	100%
Vocabulary	90%	98%
Comprehension	73%	88%
Totals	92%	97%

	High Priority Items	Discretionary Items
Phonemic Awareness	100%	100%
Phonics	100%	100%
Fluency	Not requested in detail of K	Evaluation forms
Vocabulary	100%	100%
Comprehension	81%	91%
Totals	95%	98%

	High Priority Items	Discretionary Items
Phonemic Awareness	100%	100%
Phonics	100%	92%
Fluency	Not requested in detail of K	Evaluation forms
Vocabulary	100%	83%
Comprehension	63%	67%
Totals	91%	86%

	High Priority Items	Discretionary Items
Phonemic Awareness	90%	88%
Phonics	96%	100%
Fluency	Not requested in detail of K	Evaluation forms

To Whom It May Concern:

Includes comprehensive materials for K-1

Totals

93%

85%

Overall Program Summary

Design Features

Average Rating

Totals

92%

97%

Overall Program Summary

Design Features

Average Rating

Totals

95%

98%

Overall Program Summary

Design Features

Rating

Doesn’t provide strategies for teaching story structure in the teacher’s guide.

Totals

91%

86%

Overall Program Summary

Design Features

Rating